Acadiana: Loss to Sulphur "may be the wake up call we need"

Believe it or not, we're already in Week 8 of the Louisiana high school football season. As we look ahead to the playoffs, Kevin Foote and James Bewers look at the Class 5A Power Rankings, according to the LHSAA’s formula.
Caitlin Jacob

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The Acadiana High Wreckin' Rams face off against the Sulphur Golden Tornadoes Friday Oct. 20, 2017.(Photo: Buddy Delahoussaye/Special to the Advertiser)Buy Photo

He would know about complacency. Despite five national championships, including four during a dynastic run at Alabama, Saban has coached only one team that went undefeated.

A coach can preach to a team, even the most talented ones, about staying focused on the task at hand. But it's difficult for satisfaction not to seep in when winning seems to come easy.

And when it does, the margin for error shrinks, especially when the opponent is game for tangling with a titan.

The margin shrunk for previously unbeaten Acadiana Friday night against Sulphur — and shrunk again and again and again until the Golden Tornadoes (5-2, 4-1) grabbed a fourth-quarter lead it would not relinquish in 38-28 win.

The Wreckin’ Rams (7-1, 4-1) hadn’t given up more than 14 points in a game in seven prior contest and were coming off a 70-0 win against Comeaux. And the Golden Tornadoes hadn’t beat Acadiana on the field, as in not via forfeit, since a 37-7 win in 2007.

“That’s what so fun about coaching this particular group of boys,” said Sulphur coach Jeff Wainwright. “They have so much fight in them that they ain’t even worried about the scoreboard. They’re just happy to get to play ball longer. When you grind like that, you have the chance to do some good things. Tonight, our program needed this game to take a step, and these boys give us that just by their work ethic.”

So when Rams entered halftime with a 28-14 lead, seemingly able to run the veer offense at will, Acadiana’s unblemished record looked like it would stay intact. With a win Friday, the Rams would have been two wins away from a perfect regular season, something the program had not accomplished since 1984.

But that whole going undefeated thing is hard. Despite three state championships in Ted Davidson’s tenure at Acadiana, the best the Rams have ever finished a season was 14-1.

“We get two stops right out the game, two three-and-outs, and our offense goes down and scores and makes it look easy,” Seibold said. “I guess they thought it was going to be easy the rest of the time. So I don’t know if that was true, but it certainly could be possible.”

Asked the same question, Davidson didn’t have an answer.

“I don’t know,” he said. “They just outplayed us.”

Acadiana’s leading rusher, Ziggy Francis, reaggravated an ankle injury in the first drive of the game and did not return. But that didn’t prevent the Rams from racking up 286 yards on the ground, much of that coming in the first half.

But the offensive line push Acadiana was able to generate before halftime seemed to evaporate in the second half. To make matters worse, the Rams converted only 3 of 11 third-down attempts, as quarterback Jaylon Borel was constantly harassed by aggressive Sulphur front.

“There’s a tweak here and there, but this game was won by our boys,” Wainwright said when asked about defensive adjustments the Tors made. “No coach won that game. This was our boys wanting to making a move and better our program. It’s fun to coach them.”

Defensively, Acadiana was burned on a pair of long rushing touchdowns — an 80-yard scamper in the second quarter and a 63-yard, game-sealing burst in the fourth quarter — by Tors speedy tailback Glenn Willis. Willis carried the ball 22 times for 226 yards and four touchdowns.

“We blitzed ourselves out of a couple of situations where it affected our run fits,” Seibold said. “They did a good job of scheming us. We had a difficult time containing the edge on the stretch quite bit. They did a really good job blocking the edge, and we kind of got hooked. We weren’t getting real good run support from the safeties, and they found some cracks.

“That guy (Willis) is scary. When he gets a step, you’re not going to chase him down from behind and he’s going to outrun angles. We knew what were up against, but they did a tremendous job.”

Sulphur quarterback Morgan Clark entered the game having passed for 1,592 yards and 17 touchdowns, but the commitment to the run didn’t surprise Seibold or the Acadiana defense. Running the ball to set up the play-action pass is the Tors’ offensive identity, Seibold said.

Ultimately, though, the Rams defensive coordinator believes Sulphur executed better and played more physically than the home team.

And perhaps a night like Friday is exactly what Acadiana needed, Seibold said.

“You never want to lose,” he said, “but this may be the wake up call we need that we’re not invincible and we’ve got to work to make things happen.”